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Children's Environmental Health Center

The Children’s Environmental Health Center (CEHC) is changing the way we think about the environment and our children’s health through research, education and advocacy.

Founded in 2007, the CEHC is a Center of Excellence at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. We conduct groundbreaking research to identify chemical, nutritional, and social risk factors affecting children’s health and development. We translate our findings into solutions to advocate for public policy and educate communities, parents, and caregivers on environmental risk factors so that children can reach their full potential.

Our research is conducted in the Senator Frank R. Lautenberg Environmental Health Sciences Laboratory and the Physiological Assessment of Children’s Environmental Risk Laboratory where our team is examining everything from chemical exposures, such as lead and air pollution, to social factors, such as stress and the availability of nutritious food. As part of the Institute for Exposomic Research, our goal is to translate the research back to patient care and diminish adverse health outcomes for our children and throughout our lives.

Save the Date

10th Anniversary CEHC Greening Our Children Benefit LuncheonWednesday, May 9th, 2018Greenwich Country Club

CEHC experts have developed interdisciplinary teams to more comprehensively study the effects of environmental exposures on child health and development. Our research is then used to educate communities, parents, and caregivers on the environmental risks factors (chemicals, nutrition and social factors) so that children can reach their full potential physically, mentally, and socially.

Many positive public health interventions over the last 30 years have reduced pollution and in many ways, children in America have benefited from reductions in lead exposure and cleaner air and water. However, chronic diseases such as autism, asthma, obesity, and learning disabilities are much more common now than in the past. Genetics cannot explain these increases over such short time frames. Whatever the underlying causes are for these increased rates of disease, we know they must be environmental.

The development of more research is desperately needed if we are to prevent these childhood diseases and educate families on reducing risks. Our team is dedicated to researching how the environment plays a critical role in the rise of chronic childhood diseases like food allergies, diabetes, asthma, learning disabilities, autism, and obesity. We have developed many cutting edge methods to study the thousands of chemical and physical environmental conditions that shape child health and development and will continue to do so in the coming years.

The lab was designed to support transdisciplinary and translational research by combining exposure biology and molecular biology within a state-of-the-art facility. With nine different dedicated spaces, the lab enables researchers to carry out sophisticated analyses in an open design allowing collaboration and new ideas to spread.

Senator Frank R. Lautenberg Legacy (1924 – 2013)

Senator Frank R. Lautenberg’s achievements were at the intersection of public health and the environment. Authoring the “Toxic Right to Know” Act which enabled the public the ability to find out what toxic chemicals were being released into their neighborhood, Senator Lautenberg is a genuine public health hero and will always be remembered for his work protecting the rights of those who are most vulnerable.

Physiological Assessment of Children’s Environmental Risk Laboratory

Directed by Rosalind Wright, MD, MPH, the Physiological Assessment of Children’s Environmental Risk (PACER) Laboratory has established and validated protocols that can be implemented to assess functioning of key regulatory systems susceptible to environmental influences from early development through childhood to adolescence. Dr. Rosalind Wright and her team provide expert consultation on environmental and physiological stress measures to promote a better understanding of social context as a modifier of chemical toxicants.

The laboratory also has the capacity to assess a range of pulmonary function tests, and offers ambulatory equipment, which allows for onsite and offsite deployment. Or team has established protocols for neurobehavioral and neurocognitive tests that can be administered in the field as well as in this laboratory.

The Mount Sinai Transdisciplinary Center on Early Environmental Exposures

We are studying the health impacts of chemical, genetic, nutritional, and social exposures and the interactions among them. Our approach is transdisciplinary and highly translational. We are combining clinical, population-based, and biological research with leading-edge genetics, epigenetics, and bioinformatics in the setting of a hospital-based, urban school of medicine. Through our clinical and community partnerships, we will translate our research findings into evidence-based approaches for disease prevention and treatment.

Give OnlineSupport the CEHC’s work by making a donation. Your donation helps us to continue our research and outreach efforts.

Request a SpeakerInterested in learning more about environmental risk factors and what you can do to reduce your exposure? Download our Request a Speaker form to have a CEHC expert give a lecture in your community.